Life of the Endless
by Lord Aerono
Summary: The Doctor, still trying to remember more of Clara after the events of 'Hell Bent', finds himself under attack by Aeon Torn, under orders from The Associate. With his TARDIS turned against him, and a foe every bit as clever as he is, The Doctor fights to discover why this is happening. But there is more here than meets even his eye. Sequel to 'Guilt by Association'.
1. Invasion

The Doctor stood alone in the TARDIS, head bowed as he fought to recall more of the mysterious girl named Clara, piecing more of her together from the hollow spaces in his memory.

Suddenly his TARDIS lurched under him.

As he staggered to catch his balance, the ship lurched the other direction, followed by the lights going out.

The TARDIS steadied itself in the darkness. The Doctor stood alone in the darkness, wary but unafraid.

As abruptly as the lights had vanished they returned, allowing The Doctor to notice one very important detail; the door was gone, replaced with a blank wall.

A hum activated behind him, and The Doctor turned to see a hologram of Aeon Torn appear in the air.

The hologram smiled. "Hello Doctor. Shall we play a game?"

"What have you done to my TARDIS?" The Doctor demanded.

The hologram shrugged. "I'm not sure. The Associate explained it, but most of the physics were too hard for me to understand. In essence, I've hijacked your ship. I control everything that can be controlled."

"The Associate? He's part of all this?"

The hologram nodded. "Took every scrap of favor I owed him after rescuing your friend, but yes. I am here at his request."

The Doctor glared. "Whatever you're planning, forget it. I have had a very, very bad week."

The hologram cocked his head to one side. "Sorry to say it, but the week's not over. The favor I was asked for was to tear your TARDIS apart from the inside."

The room went deathly silent.

The hologram continued after a pause. "I see that that got your attention. To counter your next point, yes, it will take a long time, but I can do it. You can't leave here before I'm done, and you can't stop me because you won't kill me and nothing else will put me down."

"I will find a way."

"Doubtful. I am quite determined. Now, let's get started. I think I'll start with the primary power storage. You're welcome to try to stop me. It'll be interesting to match wits with someone my age. Goodbye."

The hologram flickered out, leaving The Doctor standing alone in the console room.

For a moment he didn't move, but when he did it was with feverish speed.

Snatching up his sonic screwdriver, The Doctor bolted out of the room as fast as he could run.

Behind him in the empty room, nothing moved for a long moment. Then a faint shimmer in the air, hardly visible, began to move after The Doctor.

The Doctor ran through the stilled corridors of his TARDIS, Aeon's voice echoing around him.

"Well, well. It seems we have a contestant in these games. A foe worthy of my vast intellect. Let the games begin, and may the best human win!"

"I'm not human." The Doctor snapped in mid-run. "Seems a bit one-sided."

Aeon's chuckles echoed through the room. "Perhaps it would be." He said. "But that presumes that I am human. I never said that. You did. I was human. How I am something...other. Something...immortal."

"I seem to run into a lot of those."

Aeon chuckled again. "Yes, Captain Jack and Lady Me. I've met them. Me is curious. Jack's an idle observer. As for me, I am something else entirely. You've never faced anyone like me before. And on that note, when I say run, run" The hall behind The Doctor began to fill with thick smoke. "Run!"

The Doctor ran, racing through the choking smoke as he hurried to reach the power storage room before Aeon. Behind him, the smoke distorted, almost as if someone else was forcing their way through.


	2. Disclosure

The Doctor ran hard, eventually working free of the thick smoke. Stopping for a moment to get his bearings, he turned right hurrying through the long corridors as Aeon's laughter echoed through the halls around him.

Hurrying as he was, barely pausing at intersections, The Doctor almost died when he turned a corner to find that the next hall was missing its floor.

As he flailed, grabbing the wall to keep from falling, Aeon's chuckles abruptly cut off, to be replaced a snide comment. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about that. Here, let me get the floor for you."

The floor in the hall flickered back into place.

"You may proceed. I hope you are having fun!"

The echoes of Aeon's voice faded, to be replaced by his laughter in what The Doctor now realized was a loop.

More than a little annoyed at this point, The Doctor began to hurry down the hall, fidgeting with his sonic screwdriver.

After a moment he held it up, and silence returned as the speakers Aeon was using to broadcast his laugh were silenced.

The Doctor ran in silence, soon reaching the door to the primary power storage room.

Reaching the door, he was surprised to notice that the door stayed shut.

A burst from his sonic screwdriver, and the door was open.

The Doctor stepped forward into the darkened room.

He had just raised his screwdriver to turn on the lights when they activated by themselves. The Doctor stared around the revealed room in horror.

The massive golden cylinders that held the majority of the TARDIS' power reserves had been smashed. Jagged lines criss-crossed many of the cylinders, and some had even been ripped from the walls. The few that were undamaged had had their connections severed and fouled, rendering them thoroughly unable to be used.

There was a click.

As The Doctor spun to see nothing behind him, he heard a familiar chuckle.

"Too little, too late, Doctor. I've already left. What do you think, is this broken enough?"

The Doctor spun in slow circles, screwdriver at the ready, staying alert.

"Oh, so it's the silent treatment, is it? Don't bother with trying to shut me up again, by the way. I've got this system protected against your attacks now. Nicely done with the halls though. I must admit, I wasn't sure you could do that. Good to know."

"You're making a mistake here. You are not going to like it when I find you."

Aeon chuckled. "Doctor, I wasn't born yesterday. I have had nearly 4,000 years to practice not being found. You're not going to catch me. Now, to business. Without your primary power storage, your TARDIS is in trouble. Without your navigation systems, you'll be wandering blindly. Although, looking at these things, I don't know how you aren't already. On your mark, get set, GO!"

The Doctor turned to the door and took off running, Aeon's order ringing in his ears.

Behind him, the power storage room sat, a mess of wrecked machinery.

For several long seconds, as The Doctor's footsteps faded into the distance, the room was perfectly still.

Without warning the lights flickered, and the room was repaired, no signs that the damage had ever happened.

The doors open, and Aeon walked into the room, his black helmet turning as he surveyed the damage.

Behind his helmet, Aeon smiled.

"Interesting. This strategy does work. I wonder how long it will take him to realize what I'm doing?"

He shook his head. "Focus. Right."

Drawing his chakram, Aeon activated their heated edges function, hauled back, and threw.

Elsewhere in the TARDIS, The Doctor ran.

Behind him, keeping at a safe distance, the shimmer followed.


	3. Conflict

The Doctor stood in the ruins of his TARDIS' secondary navigation system.

As in the power storage, the walls and floor were marked with shallow grooves, leaving the system damaged beyond repair.

The was a click, and Aeon's voice filled the room. "Too late, again. You really need to move faster."

The Doctor looked up. "Why are you doing this?" He demanded. "What can you possibly be getting from doing this?"

"The erasure of my pain. That's what I stand to gain."

The Doctor blinked. "Did you just start talking in rhyme?"

A faint light flickered behind The Doctor as Aeon answered. "Why shouldn't I? After all, 'tis the season."

The Doctor heard a faint hum behind him, and ducked just in time to avoid a razor-sharp chakram that had been flung at his head.

The razor disk froze a few inches past The Doctor's head, then flew back to Aeon's hand.

The Doctor stood and turned to face his armored foe, his screwdriver in his hand. "Ther you are."

Aeon spread his hands wide. "Here I am. Surprised to see me?"

"A little. I'm mainly surprised that you had the courage to face me, after what you've done."

Aeon shrugged, his twin chakram clanking against his armor. "You live long enough, every risk is worth taking."

Aeon snapped his arm forward, hurling one of his disks at The Doctor.

The Doctor dodged quickly, evading both the outward and return flights.

Aeon threw again and again as The Doctor evaded, using his screwdriver to deflect some of Aeon's attacks.

Aeon kept throwing, attacking and attacking as he yelled at The Doctor. "This is the man who fought in the Time War? The Oncoming Storm? The bane of Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and Daleks? A man, cowering behind a toy? Fight, you coward, fight!"

Finding cover for a moment, The Doctor made an adjustment to his screwdriver. Stepping into the open, he took aim at Aeon and fired.

Aeon staggered a step back. After a moment of scanning his systems for damage, he looked up, puzzled. "Was that supposed to do something?"

The Doctor held up his screwdriver. "It did. I just scanned your genetic makeup under that fancy armor of yours. You try anything, and you won't wake up until you're behind bars in an asteroid prison."

Aeon paused for a moment, then, surprisingly, he bowed. "Well played. It seems I will have to be cleverer to best you in this contest."

He paused for a moment, looking at something inside his helmet. "Unfortunately, I am out of time here. Onto my next objective: the engines. I'm going to rip out the heart of your TARDIS."

The Doctor leveled his screwdriver at Aeon. "Don't you dare."

"Toodles!" Aeon hurled a chakram at The Doctor forcing him to deflect it. By the time The Doctor had his screwdriver ready again, Aeon was gone.

The Doctor ran out of the room to see Aeon vanish around a corner, and gave chase.

Behind him, the shimmer followed.

In the room he had just left, Aeon stood, listening to The Doctor depart. He exhaled.

"That was close. Too close. Still, to work."

Removing his Chakram, Aeon went to work on the now undamaged room, bringing it to the state it had been in when The Doctor arrived.

As he worked, Aeon chuckled to himself. "Time Lord? Fought in the Time War? Not likely."

Elsewhere The Doctor ran, hoping to save his TARDIS, while the shimmer followed along behind him.


	4. Realization

The Doctor ran through the halls of his TARDIS. He'd lost track of Aeon shortly after leaving the navigation room. Now he was simply hoping to get to the engines in time to stop his foe.

There was a faint click, and a chuckle from overhead.

"Ah, Doctor, you really make this far too easy. How ever did you win the Time War? You use third dimensional tactics to fight a four dimensional war. Not very clever."

The Doctor ran a few steps more, before he realized what Aeon had said. He came to an abrupt halt.

There was a long moment of silence.

"Why aren't you running, Doctor? Does this mean that you surrender?"

"No. This means that I've figured it out. I know what you are doing, and I'm stopping it, right here, right now."

There was another pause.

Then the shimmer that had been following The Doctor grew, before vanishing to reveal Aeon Torn. He chuckled, causing The Doctor to turn to face him.

"Alright, you got me. I should have known the comment about four-dimensional warfare would tip you off. Still, you must admit that was clever."

"Using the TARDIS to create time loops, so you could follow me and still arrive before I did? Yes, very clever. But that doesn't change the fact that you have seriously angered me. You've invaded my TARDIS. You've hurt her, and tried to destroy her heart. You are not welcome here. Now turn control over to me, and get out."

Aeon chuckled. "I'm sorry Doctor. I can't do that."

The Doctor leveled his screwdriver at Aeon. "That wasn't a request."

Aeon laughed. "Yes it was. Let me explain. I escape, time loop back, and cause my own escape by, shall we say, throwing a chakram at your head right about now."

Aeon ducked, and The Doctor heard a whistle from behind him.

He ducked, narrowly avoiding the chakram, before whirling to see Aeon vanish back around the corner.

Glancing over his shoulder, The Doctor saw Aeon vanish through a side door that closed behind him.

Aeon's voice echoed down the hall. "It seems that I am more Time Lord than you are. Really, your race should have been called the regenerators or something. And now, for my next trick-"

The light abruptly brightened, blinding The Doctor for a moment. When he could see again, Aeon stood at the end of the hall.

"You may be able to stop me finding the engines, or any of the other systems I had hoped to damage, but you can't prevent me finding the console room. I got here from there, I can find my way back."

"You wouldn't dare."

Aeon laughed again, but this time there was no humor in it. "Try me."

Aeon ducked back around the corner and ran.

After a moment, The Doctor followed.

Nothing happened as The Doctor raced back to the console room. The floors stayed where the should be, the lights didn't change brightness, and there was no sound of Aeon.

The Doctor arrived at the console room, to find the doors standing open for him, and the room beyond darkened.

He stepped inside.

Instantly the doors slammed shut and sealed. The lights came on, revealing Aeon, standing on the upper balcony on the opposite end of the room.

"Hello Doctor. Shall we begin?"

Aeon drew his chakram, activated their heated edges, and threw.


	5. Crescendo

The Doctor raised his screwdriver to protect himself, but realized too late that he hadn't been the target of the attack.

The chakram slammed into the control console, leaving a nasty gash through the instruments.

Aeon recalled his weapon. "Ooh, that's nasty. You might want to get that looked at."

The Doctor raced forward as Aeon threw again, barely getting into position to deflect the strike.

Aeon chuckled. "There we go. This is what I should have done in the first place."

The Doctor leveled his screwdriver. "Stand down now, or you'll find yourself awakening in a prison cell."

Aeon threw again, forcing The Doctor to deflect the attack. As the first chakram returned to Aeon, he let the second fly. "You can't strike me. Not without letting me disable the console, and turning your TARDIS into a tomb."

"You'll die too."

Aeon chuckled and threw again. "That's nothing new for me. I'm immortal. Every time I die, I rise again. The only person who was able to stay with me is dead. I have nothing to lose."

He threw. "I'll do this-" He threw again "-until one of us-" And yet again. "-is no more."

The Doctor deflected strike after strike, barely defending his console. "Whatever The Associate is offering you, it can't be worth centuries of your time."

Aeon shrugged and threw. "It's not. But I have nothing better to do."

Abruptly Aeon began to walk around the balcony, still attacking, forcing The Doctor to move to continue his defense. "What of you? Are you so committed to leaving a hostile foe alive that you will spend centuries trying, and failing, to stop me from destroying you home and your best friend?"

"You'll make a mistake before then. I'll find a way. I always find a way."

Aeon sighed. "You'll force my hand, Doctor. Just fight me. Make this easy. You are the terror of hundreds of races. Are you so committed to life that you will let one foe live rather than take the sensible option."

"I know what you're doing. I'm not going to play The Associate's game. Not now, not ever."

Aeon shrugged. "On your head be it."

Aeon threw both chakram at once. The Doctor deflected them to one side, then turned his screwdriver on Aeon, only to find that his foe had reversed directions.

The Doctor fired a pulse at Aeon. The burst of sound grazed Aeon, staggering him slightly.

In response, Aeon extended his hands towards The Doctor.

The Doctor heard a hum behind him, and turned to see Aeon's chakram returning to their master, heedless of the fact that the console was now in the way.

A burst from The Doctor's screwdriver knocked the weapons away once more.

The Doctor turned to face Aeon once more.

Aeon hadn't moved, standing where The Doctor had seen him last.

The Doctor leveled his screwdriver at Aeon once more.

Aeon raised his hands. "Peace, Doctor. You win. And lose, all at once." He said, his voice sounding odd.

Reaching back, Aeon removed his helmet. The face revealed was older than The Doctor would have expected. Then he realized that Aeon was aging before his eyes.

Aeon smiled. "Thank you Doctor. Don't let this haunt you. I came here hoping this would happen."

Aeon's legs started to give out, forcing him to sit down. "I've been alone too long. The Associate wanted me to prove to you that sometimes death is necessary. I just wanted to see my wife again."

Aeon met The Doctor's eyes as he lowered the screwdriver. "Don't travel alone too long, Doctor. It twists people like you into people like me."

Wincing, Aeon extracted a small book from a pouch on his belt and tossed it to the floor at The Doctor's feet. "When I pass, your ship will be restored. The book is my apology for all this."

As extreme old age began to creep across, Aeon's features, he laid back on the deck and closed his eyes. He exhaled. "Kara..." he whispered, then he aged into dust and and vanished, his armor disintegrating with him.

For a long moment, The Doctor stood, staring at the place where his foe had expired.

A loud groan startled his, and he looked around to see that the console was now undamaged, and the doors had reappeared.

Setting his thoughts aside for the moment, The Doctor reached down and picked up the book that Aeon had tossed him.

"Morse code?" The Doctor said to himself. "Why would he give me this?"

The lights in the room flashed.

The Doctor looked up to see that the light on the wall in front of him was blinking in a pattern. Four short pulses, pause, one short, pause, short long short short, pause, short long short short, pause, three long, longer pause, then the pattern began again.

The Doctor stood, looking at the pattern for a moment, trying to understand what he was looking at. Then comprehension dawned as he looked down at the book in his hands, then back up at the blinking light.

Unseen by The Doctor, who was overjoyed at Aeon's parting gift, in the dark space under the console room floor, something was stirring.

Dust spiraled and flowed, drifting to a single point.

A mans hand took shape in the dust, turning from grey dust to pink flesh. As the dust continued to spread, forming the man's arm, something to shape in the man's empty hand. Fingers formed, then hand and wrist, thinner and lighter than the man's hand.

As the dust began to swirl in earnest, bodies began to form, flowing out from the clasped hands of a man and woman.


End file.
